The Home We Made
by xKiyoki-chanx
Summary: An amateur short story about what it means to have a friend.


**The Home We Made**

* * *

It was that moment that I heard a noise from the other side of the tall, white wall separating me from the rest of the world. The wall had been my worst enemy for a long time; a long, long time. I glanced over at the small amount of cheese still left in the corner of the room. The whole room wasn't made out of white walls; no, it was made out of glass walls. But they stared into the empty void, no life to be seen. It wasn't scary, though, as there was no sense of height in this place. There never had been, never would be. I had been separated from life for how long now…? Months, or maybe even a year. Devoid of social interactions, I was going insane, yet I had no way to end my pain. I almost forgot about the noise as I was lost deep in thought. It was the first sound I had heard in a long time except for my own feet. And even then, that was a soft din. My ears nearly rang because of it, despite it probably being very quiet. Weakly climbing to my feet, as it was hard to move after being empty of good exercise, I padded over to the white wall, pressing my ear against the surface.

_Thud._

I jumped backwards, my messy red and black hair flailing in front of me, and my red and white scarf levitating in the air for a moment, the noise vibrating through my ears and seemingly through my head in the most hurtful manner. It was almost as if some-mouse was banging on the wall. Wait… Another mouse? My mind blanked for a moment as I tried to collect my thoughts. There was another mouse on the side of this wall… Another mouse… Another living creature! Someone I could talk to! Someone… Someone… Tears welled at my eyes as I was overcome with emotions. With energy I had long since forgotten, I ran over to the wall and began to scream with my hoarse voice, "HELLO? HELLO? IS SOMEONE THERE?"

For a small second there was silence as the thudding stopped. A voice came through the wall. It was quiet, but probably louder on the other end. There was strain and hiccups in the words that came through, as if the other mouse were crying. "H-Hello…? A-Are you another mouse…? You aren't that shaman are you…?"

I shook my head despite the other mouse not being able to see me. That was a stupid question, wasn't it? If it were that shaman, I wouldn't be talking to this mouse, I'd be tormenting her. Despite the sadness in her voice I was grinning from ear to ear, inexplicably happy at the prospect of speaking. I had only been speaking to myself for the longest time, the words processing tastelessly. It seemed almost as if I had forgotten how to talk until now. "Yes! Yes I am!" I was trying to hide the happy tears in my voice. "Where are you? Are you on the other side? What is life like over there? Why are you talking to me, how did you find me, are you okay? Who are you? What's your name?" I couldn't slow down all my questions as they came spilling out of my mouth.

The other mouse was silent at first as I finally shut my mouth, trying to keep calm. Then she finally answered, "I'm Felicity... Who are you?"

I searched through my memory for a very short moment, as my name didn't actually come to my right away. Finally I remembered, "I'm Rose! Oh my god I'm so glad you're here, I've been in this room for so long and-"

"There's a room over there? How do you get out?" _More silly questions._

"I don't get out, if I could get out don't you think I would have tried already?" I grumbled half to myself rashly. I couldn't see Felicity, so I wouldn't be able to read her body language, but I already guessed that probably hurt her feelings. Unable to say sorry with all my thoughts flooding my brain, I kept going, repeating a sentence from before, "Where are you?"

"I appear to be in a room of glass. It's scary in here, the windows tumble out into darkness, I don't have much food, and there's this big white wall here..." Felicity continued speaking and worrying, but I tuned out the sound as my heart sank. The shaman had trapped her too... No... This wasn't right... I couldn't bear to think that another mouse had to suffer the same fate I did. Unable to form words, I tried to listen but couldn't, until finally, there was another thud on the wall. I stammered, "W-What are you doing?"

I heard a soft weeping from the other side. Was Felicity crying...? "Let me out, please, let me out, LET ME OUT," she screamed, agony and distraught marking her voice. I had felt the same way when I was first trapped, but I knew the efforts were fruitless in trying to break the wall. The bangs kept getting louder and louder as her screams pierced my ears and made them feel as if they were bleeding.

I didn't want her to feel this way, I didn't want to feel this way anymore, I didn't want anyone to feel this way... Finally, I formed words. They didn't sound all that nice, but... "Stop doing that! It's hurting my ears and it's fruitless, this wall is sturdy and will not break over the force of one mouse!" I screamed.

I'm guessing Felicity flinched, as the noises stopped for a moment, then there was a loud gasp and a wail, as she began to cry again. There was a small shuffle, and pinpointing vaguely where the sounds were coming from I could tell she was on the ground. Realizing what I had said, I padded up closer to the wall and talked a bit softer, but still loud enough so she could hear, "Hey, I'm sorry..." Still crying. Unable to comfort the other girl in any other way, I slumped against the wall, staring at the ceiling that opened up to more void. How much I wished there was more color than just black and white in this space. I wanted to see the sky again, I wanted to see the grass again... I got lost in thought as I toned out the screaming behind me, and eventually, nodded off to sleep.

* * *

My sleep was dreamless, as usual, as if my mind could not piece together any memories or images to complete a dream. I was woken up by a soft thump. I blinked my bleary eyes open, my vision hindered for a few short moments. I re-closed and opened my eyes a few times until the blurriness was gone, and then redirected my attention to the blank wall. There was a long silence before I heard the sound again. Once I did, I pressed my ear against the surface and spoke, "Felicity? Is that you?" No response. "Felicity?"

Listening closer, I could hear a faint snoring noise, as if the mouse was asleep. Not really thinking first, I said a bit louder, "Felicity, wake up!" There was a loud snort, and I almost smiled, realizing how much I had missed these kind of sounds.

"Huh...?" I barely heard the murmur. However, I did, so in quick response, I replied, "Felicity! Are you okay? I heard a thudding noise and I didn't know if you were okay-"

Felicity cut me off, "My tail was hitting the wall when I was asleep..." Grogginess lined her voice and I started to feel bad for waking her up. She was probably really tired from all the crying from yesterday...

"Hey, I'm sorry for waking you up... Um..." Silence. "Did you sleep okay? Did you have any dreams?"

"I slept fine, but I'm still really tired... Maybe because I didn't dream?"

I frowned. It was probably because of her circumstances, but I guess that couldn't be helped. "Dreamless sleep? I always have dreamless sleep... It sucks, doesn't it?"

"Yeah..."

There was a long pause as I tried to figure out words to say. "Hey, Felicity, do you have any friends?"

"Yeah, I do... I wonder if they're okay." I could tell she was holding back more tears.

Trying to be more caring than usual, I said, "Don't cry... You'll see them again soon. I just want to know."

"How am I supposed to see them again soon if I'm stuck in here?!" she nearly yelled, her voice much louder. I didn't know what to say to that. I had been trapped for so long, I had no answers. If I did, I would have used those answers.

Finally, I replied, "I don't know."

There was more quiet, until Felicity spoke up, "Rose, do you have any friends?"

"No... Not that I remember, anyways."

"What do you mean, you don't remember?" Felicity seemed surprised.

"I've been in here for who knows how long, Felicity. It's driving me insane."

"Oh..." I guess she didn't really know what to say to that. Without thinking, I kept on venting, because I hadn't ever told anyone about this...

"For so long I've been trapped in here, I couldn't talk to anyone, it's always been cold, there's no color except for the meager amount of cheese I have left, but you know what? I can't die. I'm not allowed to die. There's no way to die in here. The glass is too strong for me to break myself, and there's just... No way... I couldn't tell anyone and-" I paused. I'm telling someone right now. "But now, I guess I can."

I wondered if Felicity was smiling or frowning on the other side. There was no way to tell, of course. "Rose, what do you like to do?"

"I don't know that either. Maybe I should ask the questions?"

"Yeah, okay."

"What do you like to do...?"

And that's how it started. Felicity started weaving tales about her life outside of the glass room, and how she and her friends were always running around, gathering cheese and having a fun time. The stories made me sad, as I couldn't do those things, but it also inspired me and made me happy. It reminded me somewhat that those happy things could exist. For days we talked and slept, and laughed and had a good time. For once in forever, I felt... Happy. I didn't feel lonely anymore. This was all fine until, one day I asked, "Hey, Felicity, what happened yesterday with you and the shaman...?"

There was a long silence. I realized how intruding my sentence was, especially since these topics made her upset, as well as the fact that we were just talking about Tribes, and shuffled my hands awkwardly while waiting for a response. In a few more moments the mouse had pieced together her thoughts, and began to explain.

"Well, I was in room 415, gathering cheese and stuff, you know? I had just bought the helmet for my ears in the shop, the uh, one that costs 4001 cheese..." I vaguely remembered these things, but she kept on going and I wasn't going to interrupt. "I was just about to customize it, too, until suddenly my vision went black. It was really, really scary, and I started to panic. I couldn't see anything, and everything was quieter. Then suddenly, there was no sound at all, and I was here, a shaman with black rings and pupil-less eyes standing over me, a cannonball materializing at his hands. Then suddenly, the cannonball faded away, as if he were just trying to scare me, and the shaman disappeared. I'm assuming he trapped me here. It's been really scary and there's no one around and I can't contact my friends and, and, and..."

Felicity was working herself up again, as I could tell. I spoke the first words that came to my head. "The same thing happened to me. Crying about it isn't going to change anything, though." Instead of bursting into tears, the other mouse stopped speaking, and there was a prolonged thump against the wall, and a loud one at that. My ears hurt for a short moment, but I didn't pull away. Was she sitting with her back against the barricade? There was a sigh, and subsequently I sighed as well. I stared up at the glass ceiling, the one I had been used to for so long. I wondered, what would it be like, if Felicity was over here with me?

Felicity... I so badly want to see you someday, Felicity. I just want to get out of here, and live again, but it's fruitless, isn't it? My mind tried to conjure up some memories of the friends I had long ago, but only vague shadows passed through my head, and I nearly groaned in frustration. But could it be, that here and now, Felicity was my one and only friend? "Hey, Felicity..."

"Yeah?"

"Remember how I said breaking this wall was a stupid endeavor?"

There was a slight pause. "Yeah..."

"Maybe... Maybe it isn't."

Another pause. "What do you mean?"

"Felicity, I've been stuck here for a long time. I want to see you. I want to get out of here. And I think now, I might have just realized, that if it means living again, I want to keep trying. I want to keep trying till the day I die. Felicity, we have to try. We just have to, I can't take this any longer, I can't take not meeting you, I can't take this."

I stood up, and placed my paw against the wall, trying to feel for how thick it was. Not thick at all... I swear I could feel the air on the other side. "Hey, Felicity... Put your paw on the wall. Find mine..."

A few minutes went by until finally I felt the slight push of another arm. I closed the distance between my head and the wall, and emotions began to well up inside me. I was going to get out of here, if it was the last thing I did. And at that moment, the last thing I expected began to happen.

I felt a new power rise within me. Something only a handful of mice were blessed with. Electricity ran up my veins, starting from my toes to the top of my head, and despite my eyes being closed I felt blue color saturating my fur, a breeze flowing around my body, a thing I had forgotten long ago. I felt as if the rain and thunder ruining my mind was instantly lifted, the sunshine breaking through the clouds and touching ground. I opened my eyes.

So this was what being a shaman meant, huh? Having a friend... Learning the importance of the mice around one's self... Learning to find hope in the bleakest of situations, finding truth in what is wrong. Without thinking I lifted my unoccupied paw, the left one, and opened my fist as particles began to form using the air around the new object. The particles swirled and collided, painting the sphere with a white arrow, pointing towards the wall.

This was it.

After so long... I was finally free.

The cannonball shot forward, and there was a loud crash as a new hole was made in the wall...

For once in the last year... I would finally get to touch and feel someone again. I was going to be able to meet my one friend... Felicity.

Before I could even step through, a flash of white collided with my body and tackled me to the ground. The feeling of warmth against my chest and the feeling of air shifting around me... This couldn't be real, yet it was. It was very much real. I blinked my eyes open and above me, red eyes stared back down, light shining in them, life, a new life, life I had forgotten. Emotions that I had left to die began to form; happiness, inexplicable happiness and remembrance of what was important to one's self. The ideas of living were very much real, weren't they? Yes, of course they were. Being stuck for so long had made me obliterate the very thought of life. Looking at Felicity's eyes... I could make someone happy, too. I had the power to cherish another mouse despite everything that had happened... And I'm sure Felicity felt the same. She was so naive, she may not have the true power to harness one's emotions into actions, however she would learn. Because she was a lucky mouse, and I was too, for one who goes through hardships learns of hope and intense joy afterwards.

To learn the true meaning of a friend.

"Felicity... Oh dear God, Felicity!" I wrapped her in a hug and pulled her down closer to me, feeling vitality in my paws. It exploded and swirled around me as tears formed and ran down my cheeks. Felicity was sobbing, so happy to have someone here with her. She was lucky, she hadn't had to deal with this for months on end. She never would, cause we were going to get out of here.

"Rose, Rose, how did you do that? Oh Rose, oh my God, just... I was so scared, Rose! I didn't want to be in there forever. I didn't want to live so long without anyone... Without myself." That's probably the most mature thing I heard her say.

"I realized a lot, Felicity. You'll learn soon, too."

We were both crying, and we sat like this for a long time, unable to think of anything but each other, until finally, I mentioned, "We should get out of here, shouldn't we?"

Felicity lifted up from me and nodded eagerly, stepping off of me, the warmth still lingering around me. With concentration, I began to form boards and nails, anchoring the wood to thin air, building upwards to the high ceiling of what was the glass room. After so long, we were getting out. With a cannonball I shot straight through the glass. It made a loud crashing noise as shards of glass fell. Felicity and I were careful not to touch them as I made that one plank, the one that led out of the glass.

There had to be something up there.

For hours I built and built, knowing with all my heart that there would be ground above. Plank after plank were summoned, and step after step we walked, until, finally, tired and hungry, I sighted a color. A brown color. The color of ground. Something else I had long forgotten. With new found energy, we stepped across more boards, until finally, grass was right above us. I could already feel the breeze knocking around the feathers placed on my head. "Felicity, are you ready?" I glanced at the albino mouse behind me, who was sporting her blue and yellow helmet. She nodded eagerly. With that, I conjured a wind below us and we were lifted above, onto solid ground.

My eyes nearly hurt from all the colors. Green, blue, brown, yellow, orange... Just, everything. Everything that had faded away in my mind came rushing back. The sun created more light on my fur than I had ever felt, it seemed, and as I had expected there was cheese on the far side of the room, and a mouse hole. Everything I had missed, everything I longed and hoped to see again, was here in front of me.

Felicity padded up behind me, taking into view everything that she had been used to a few days ago. I sighed happily, and burst into a fit of laughter, falling onto the grassy floor underneath me. Felicity stared down at my with worry. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's just... I don't know, really," I calmed down my laughter, "Just, it seemed almost as if the past year or so has disappeared... As if it never really happened, yet I know it did."

Felicity nodded, looking at me with sympathy. "I'm so sorry I didn't come to you sooner. I grinned up at her.

"Maybe you could make it up by racing with me to that cheese over there?" I pointed to the yellow substance on the far side of the room. Felicity smiled and shook her head up and down, getting low to the ground in a running pose.

"Three... Two... One... GO!"

**Epilogue**

* * *

I sat in the chair that was much too large for me, sinking into the soft cushion. I stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the events from a year ago. The period of time I spent in the glass room... It seemed so long ago. I remembered very clearly some days where I sat in sadness, but most of all, the day I met Felicity. The day where everything changed for me... I sighed, not for any particular reason, and straightened the feathers atop my head. This is when I realized something. I was given this power because I learned how to harness positive emotions and put them into actions, yet the shaman who had trapped us was corrupted is more ways than one.

I began to think, and came up with an answer. It was only a mere guess, as many things could have happened. The shaman must have learned what I had learned, yet, maybe their friends left him. Maybe something happened to one of them... But here's where the shaman was in fault. As I had learned since I got out of the glass room, people come and go in your life. But just because one leaves, doesn't mean their time with you was worth nothing. It means you must learn to go enjoy life with someone else as to make you and others happy, and remember your time with that person, cherish it, and let it remind you of the strength you have. How have I learned this you ask? Another hardship. Felicity? She's dead.

I remember very clearly the moment she told me she had cancer. No one could do anything about it, but for the last few months of her life I cherished our time together until she died in my arms. I was putting her to bed. She was much too weak to walk anymore, and suddenly she said, "Hey, Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks so much... For being such a good friend."

Suddenly her eyes turned milky white, and she fell limp in my arms. At first I didn't process any of it, but then I realized what had happened.

I cried. A lot.

For the next month I was heartbroken, didn't talk to anybody, and didn't go outside the Tribe House. The Tribe House was home to only me and Felicity. I stared around blankly, wishing she was there, unable to accept that she was gone.

But somehow, I did. Because finally, I got out of the chair I was sitting in now, and went to the room that Felicity had been in when she was trapped in the glass room. It was room 415. I didn't expect anyone to be there. I purely went there for memories. But much to my surprise, there was another mouse there. When I saw her, she froze, almost as if she were scared. Something Felicity always did when she met new mice...

I instantly broke down crying.

I can't explain how much I wanted Felicity back. It was heartbreaking. The other mouse came up to me, her voice shy and shaky. "H-Hey, are you okay...?"

"No. I'm not. GO AWAY."

Stubborn but scared, the other mouse spoke, "W-Why are you c-crying?"

You see, I hadn't told anyone about how distraught I was from Felicity's death. I hadn't been able to share it with anyone. So, I spilled. I spilled every emotion I had felt from the day I met her to the day she died, and I kept crying all the while. It was at that moment I might have become corrupted, like that other shaman. But the next words spoken to me made me realize something. "H-Hey... Listen, my friend died recently. But I'm over it because I told myself I was going to be happy."

I stopped crying that instant. "I wasn't going to be sad, because being sad means I wouldn't be happy. It means I wouldn't make any more friends. And I didn't want that..." Naive but mature at the same time.

Just like Felicity. But instead of making me sad, it made me happy. This mouse was right. She was very much right... There were other mice out there, and even though Felicity died... She made me happy when no one else could, and made me realize that I had strength in myself, as well. Now that I'm sad again, it doesn't mean I'm hopeless. I had strength in myself just like before. I could make others happy. And they could make me happy, just like she could. Just like before, there was hope. There's always hope. That's where the shaman made his mistake. He forgot that there was hope.

That mouse was named Moon. We're best friends now. I sank into my chair a little lower, clearing the thoughts and memories away. There was a flash of light, and Moon came into the Tribe House, a few others behind her. I looked over and smiled, getting out of my chair. "Hey, Rose, these are some of my friends. They were wondering if it would be okay if they stayed in the Tribe." She was smiling ear to ear.

"Sure," I replied. "What are your names?"

The first mouse, a brown mouse with a scarf and messy rainbow hair, said, "I'm Spike." He smiled awkwardly, adjusting the glasses on his face. The second mouse, a white, fluffy mouse, that took on the essence of snow, responded, "I'm Winter." She stared at me eagerly. Last but not least, the final mouse, a tiger-striped mouse with a Spartan helmet spoke, "I'm Alex. Nice to meet you." He had no expression on his face.

I looked at the three of them and nodded, pushing my glasses up my face. "I'm Rose. I'm the Spiritual Chief of this Tribe. Nice to meet you." I smiled a pure smile. "Do you guys want to go collect some cheese with me? We could race, if you want."

The other mice agreed, and left the room, heading for our Tribe's home room. It was the room sky, the name of our Tribe in all lower case. There were more flashes of light as they all left, heading eagerly into the room. I for one, took one last moment to look around the room. My eyes settled on a photograph of me and Felicity. She was laughing and trying to tackle me while I stood up strong. I smiled. This was it, isn't it? The home we made with our hearts.


End file.
